Victoria’s court delays worst in Australia under Labor
Victoria now has Australia’s longest criminal case waiting lists in every court in the State – Supreme Court, County Court, Magistrates’ Court and Children’s Court – Shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark said today.
Productivity Commission data released on Friday show that as at 30 June last year there were 528 Supreme Court appeals on Victoria’s bulging court waiting lists, together with 2,173 County Court trials, 35,205 Magistrates’ Court cases and 3,445 Children’s Court cases. Each of these backlogs is the largest of its type in Australia.
There are more than 42,500 criminal cases awaiting trial in Victoria’s courts, compared with just 26,085 cases in New South Wales.
Since 2003, backlogs in Victoria’s courts have leapt by more than 36 per cent, compared with a 13 per cent reduction in New South Wales.
In the County Court, 684 trials had been waiting to be heard for more than a year after being lodged with the court, on top of the time already taken for investigating, charging and committal.
“Years of delays are creating trauma and distress for victims, their families and witnesses, while thousands likely to be found guilty of violent crimes are walking free and unpunished,” Mr Clark said.
“Long delays are undermining respect for the law and public confidence in the justice system.
“These delays mean the community is not being protected from violent thugs, sentences applied long after the crime are having little deterrent effect, and any rehabilitation measures are years too late.
“Delays increase the chances of guilty persons escaping justice due to witnesses’ memories fading or other evidence being lost, while on the other hand innocent people can have serious charges hanging over their heads for years.
“Despite having brought almost every area of court administration under his and his department’s direct control, Attorney-General Rob Hulls has failed to give Victoria’s courts the support they need.
“Instead of ensuring Victorians can obtain justice, Rob Hulls has spent his time undermining Victoria’s judges and wasting millions of taxpayers’ dollars on bungled court technology projects and damaging distractions like his so-called Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities and his attacks on freedom of association.
“Rob Hulls’ hollow boasts about justice are empty words to the thousands of Victorians who are struggling to obtain justice amid the ever-growing delays in our courts,” Mr Clark said.
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Justice delayed is justice denied: Victoria’s long court waiting lists
The Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services 2010 (Table 7A.17), and 2003 figures from the Report on Government Services 2008, show that for criminal cases as at 30 June 2009:
• there were 528 Supreme Court appeal cases waiting to be heard in Victoria compared with 489 cases last year and 337 cases in June 2003. This is the highest number in Australia. Over the same period, the backlog of appeals in NSW fell from 242 to just 165;
• of those 528 cases, 130 cases (or almost one in four) had been waiting more than 12 months to be heard, far and away the highest percentage of any state in Australia. It compares to just 15 cases in New South Wales (9.1 per cent) and eight cases (5.4 per cent) in Queensland;
• the backlog of non-appeal Supreme Court cases was 120, compared with just 56 cases in June 2003. NSW had 94 pending cases, down from 139 in 2003. More than one-quarter (26.7 per cent – 32 cases) of Victoria’s cases had been waiting for more than 12 months, the highest proportion in Australia;
• in the County Court, there were 1,037 appeal cases waiting to be heard, compared with just 510 in 2003. 77 of these cases had been waiting for more than 12 months, compared with 44 cases in 2003;
• there were 2,173 non-appeal County Court cases waiting to be heard, the highest number in Australia, and up from 1,722 cases in 2003. Of these, 684 cases or 31.5 per cent, had been waiting for more than 12 months, compared with 17.2 per cent waiting more than 12 months in 2003. In contrast, only 119 cases, or 6.7 per cent of comparable cases, were waiting more than 12 months in NSW;
• Victoria’s Magistrates Courts have the largest backlog of cases of any jurisdiction in Australia, with 35,205 cases waiting to be heard, up from 26,633 in 2003. Of these, more than 8,825 cases or 25.1 per cent had been waiting more than 6 months to be heard, compared with 2,387 cases or 11.5 per cent in New South Wales;
• Victoria’s Children’s Courts also have the largest backlog in Australia, with 3,445 cases waiting to be heard, up from 1,850 in 2003. The nearest of any other state is Queensland with 2,261 cases.
Source: http://www.pc.gov.au/gsp/reports/rogs